Apparatus adapted for heating shoes



Dec. 15, 1953 E. H. slMMs 2,662,964

APPARATUS ADAPTED FOR HEATING SHOES Filed May 26, 1950 3 Sheets-Shea?I 1Inventor Ernest H Simms Dec. l5, 1953 E. H. slMMs 2,662,964

APPARATUS `ADAPTED FOR HEATING SHOES Filed May 26, 1950 3 Shee'.s-Shee-rl 2 Inventar Ernest H Simms Dec. l5, 1953 E. H. SIMMs 2,662,964

APPAM'I'US ADAPTED FOR HEATING SHOES Filed May 26, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 5[n1/enfin* -E'mes H Simms Patented Dec. 15, 1953 APPARATUS ADAPTED FORHEATING SHOES Ernest Harry Simms, Leicester, England, assignor to UnitedShoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J., a corporation of NewJersey Application May 26, 1950, Serial No. 164,357

Claims priority, application Great Britain July 9, 1949 sclaims.(01.219-35) This invention relates to improvements in or relating toapparatus adapted for heating shoes, the word shoe being used herein todenote outer footwear generally whether completed or onlypartially-completed; the invention will be hereinafter described withreference to heating the bottoms of shoes which have been lasted butwhich have, as yet, no outsoles.

At the present time a considerable proportion of the shoes beingmanufactured are cementsoled shoes, that is to say shoes which haveleather outsoles secured in place upon their shoe bottoms by cementrather than by stitching or metallic fasteners. customarily acement-soled shoe is made by a process in which both the outsole and theshoe bottom are iirst roughed, for example with a wire brush, and arethen given marginal applications of pyroxylin solution, the solventbeing thereafter allowed to evaporate to leave marginal coatings ofpyroXylin on the two workpieces. Subsequently, at a convenient time inthe shoe manufacturing process, a suitable activator, comprising avolatile solvent for the pyroxylin, is applied to the outsole and theoutsole and shoe are, very shortly thereafter, brought together andplaced under pressure in a cement sole press. The activator brings thepyroxylin coatings on the outsole and shoe bottom into an adhesivecondition and the outsole and shoe are held together under pressure inthe press until the solvent has largely evaporated and a suiiicientlyfirm bond between the outsole and the shoe bottom has been produced toallow the work to be removed from the press.

In making a cement-soled shoe by the process inst referred to the periodof time for which the outsole and shoe must be held together underpressure is one factor which determines the number of pairs of shoeswhich a cement sole press is capable of handling in a` given time, andin order to shorten this period Vand so increase the capacity of thepress it has been a common practice to subject the outsole to moistheat, immediately prior to application of the activator,

with a view to hastening evaporation of the sol- 2 sole carrying amarginal coating of cement to which an activator has been applied.

An apparatus illustrative of the invention is hereinafter described indetail, this illustrative apparatus comprising an enclosure having amovable hood carrying a work support in the form of a horizontalopen-mesh wire grid upon which lasted shoes may be positionedshoebottoms downward. Beneath the work support are situated six electricradiant heat lamps which direct heat upwards through the support towardswork so positioned.

The wire grid forms the floor and the hood forms the ceiling of acompartment in which six shoes may be accommodated side by side, thehood having a top plate provided with louvres. A number of baffle platesare arranged to keep glare from the lamps from the operators eyes whenhe is positioning a shoe in the nest or removing a shoe therefrom. Byarranging the apparatus in such a way that shoes are inserted bottomsdownward the work of the operator is facilitated in that he does notneed to position the shoes on last supports or the like; on the otherhand this makes it necessary to have the lamps beneath the shoes, andthe lamps are, in this case, liable to become somewhat obscured, after atime, by small pieces of waste matter from the work (including, forexample, leather dust resulting from roughing), and with this in mindthe apparatus is so arranged that the work support, hood and bafileplates can be swung upwards as a whole about a hinge to allow irseaccess to the lamps for periodical cleaning.

The above and other features and advantages of the present inventionwill become more clear from the following description, to be read withreference to the accompanying drawings, of the said illustrativeapparatus; it will be realized that this apparatus has been selected fordescription by way of example and not of limitation of the invention.

In the drawings,

Fig. l is a perspective view of the illustrative apparatus;

Fig. 2 is a view of the apparatus in section by a vertical planeextending from front to rear of the apparatus; and

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but to a larger scale, an upper partonly of the apparatus being shown.

The illustrative apparatus comprises a body l i adapted to upon the anda hood or cover i3 hinged to the body i! by a horizontal hinge l5 at theback of the apparatus. Normally the hood i3 occupies a position shown inFigs. 1 and 3, but it may be swung upwards upon the hinge i5 to an upperposition shown in Fig. 2, such position being deiined by engagement ofpins il', iixed in the body H with ends of slots it in links :2i pivotedto the hood I3 at 23; only one of the pins Il', slots i9 and links 2l isshown, viz., in Fig. 2, at the right hand side of the apparatus, theother being at the left hand side.

The body i! is a riveted sheet metal structure and comprises twovertical side plates 25, 25 one at the left of the apparatus and theother at the right. Each side plate 25 is for the most part iiat but hasa forward margin 27 curved round through a right-angle toward the centerof the apparatus and terminating at a vertical edge 25 and a rear marginbent round rather more abruptly.

The edges 29, 9 are bridged by a rectangular sheet metal front-plate 3lan upper horizontal. edge 33 of which is continuous with upperhorizontal edges 35, 35 of the plates 25, 25, while the rear margins ofthe plates 25, 25 are bridged by a backplate 3l, situated behind theplate 3l and having the hinge l5 xed thereto at its upper edge on alevel with the edges 33, 35.

Lower horizontal edges i the plates 3i, 3l are bridged by a perforatedsheet metal grille a short distance above which lies a second grillelil, the grille 35 being wholly horizontal but the grille 4I beinghorizontal save for a bentup rear portion i3 as shown in the drawings.The grilles 3S, t! are xed to narrow shelves riveted to the plates 25,25.

Beneath the grille 39 each plate 25 is bridged from front to rear by avetrcal plate 45, the arrangement being such as to make a hollow frameil at each side of the apparatus; the plates iit do not extend upwardsabove the grille 39. The plates :i5 are bridged by a curved plate iSwhich runs from floor level up for a short distance at the front of theapparatus and then curves over to run horizontally between the plates d5beneath the grille 39. It will be seen that the upper parts of theplates 25, the frontplate Si, back-plate 37 and grille 4| provide ahousing 59 having an aperture at the top and supported by the frames 41.

Fixed to the grille di and situated within the housing 5d are lampholders 5i for six electric lamps 53, three rearmcst lampholders 5lbeing iixed, in a row extending from side to side of the apparatus, totherportion of the grille 4l and three front lampholders 5i being xed toits horizontal portion. Each lamp 53 is a 250 watt gas nlled lamp of atype designed to emit a substantial proportion of radiant heat rays, andhas a circular filament 55 and an internal silvered renectorsuriace 5l,the arrangement being such that radiant heat from the rearmost threelamps is mainly directed forwards and upwards, in the direction of thearrow A (Fig. 3) while radiant heat from the front three lamps is mainlydirected vertically upward, in the direction of the arrow B (Fig. 3).Power for the lamps 53 is controlled by a mainswitch 58 (Fig. 1) on thefrontplate 3l.

When the hood I3 is in its normal position a narrow skirt portion 5lthereof lies within the housing 5@ and rests upon a narrow shelf 63within the latter, a shoulder 65 of the hood at the same time restingupon the edges 33, 35. The hood i3 is a riveted sheet metal structureand comprises side plates 6l, 5'! which in said nor-1 mal position arecontinuous with the side plates 25, 25 lying immediately above thelatter. Thus a forward margin of each plate 6'. is curved round througha right angle towards the center of the apparatus and terminates at avertical edge ii. The edges SS, ES are bridged across the front of theapparatus by a narrow metal strip 'il and also by a forward portion of asheet metal top plate l, which latter is curved down forward andterminates in a straight horizontal edge 75. The top plate i3 bridgesthe plates ii'i, El across the top of the apparatus and curves downround the back of the apparatus to the hinge i5. The top piate 'i3 isprovided with sis; transverse louvres l?! of curved cross-sectionarranged one behind the other (see Figs. 2 and 3), ve of which are ofcurved sheet metal secured to the plates l, Si at their ends and theother (the rearmost one) of which is constituted by a curved portion ofthe plate i3 itself. Adjacent the bottom oi each ci" the edges isprovided a forwardly-andrearwardly extending channel member ii), the twomembers 'it providing a guideway in which is mounted a platform-likework support di, the latter taking the form o a rectangular horizontalopen-mesh wire grid with metal binding at its periphery. Normally thesupp-ort 8l occupies a position in which a forward edge B3 thereofextends across between the edges ed above the strip ii, the edges 59,EQ, i5, 83 defining a rectangular opening 85. Eiongatedrectangulaibaflle plates 8l, $9, Si are xed at the opposite endsthereoic to the side plates ii'i.

When the apparatus is in operation six shoes are inserted through theopening 85 and positioned shoe-bottoms downward side by side upon thesupport 23! in the manner of the shoe S of Fig. 3, and the lamps 53direct heat upwards through the support i?! onto the shoes in thedirections indicated by the arrows A and B. About a minute and a half islong enough for adequate heating of the shoe bottom, but where a shoehas been leit in the apparatus for a considerably longer period, sayiive minutes, no damage has resulted.

As will be seen from Fig. 3 the baies d?, 3Q prevent glare from thefilaments iid oi the three rearmost lamps from reaching the cperatorseyes through the opening 35 when he is positioning shoes upon thesupport di, the baiiies Sii operating in a similar manner in respect cite three front lamps. The louvres il substantial escape of glare throughthe top of the hood i3.

Further, should the lamps 53 become obscured by leather dust from thework, the hood i3, and with it the work support 3l and the Si, Si@ and9|, can readily be swung upwards as a whole upon the hinge i5 to providefree access to the lamps 53 for cleaning or replacement.

Although I have shown and described invention in terms of one speciicembodiment thereof, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art thatmany other forms thereof, well as variations in the one described, arepossible. i therefore desire that my invention shall not be limitedexcept in so far as is made necessary by the prior art and by the spiritof the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what i claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. n apparatus of the class described, an en closure comprising ahousing formed with an aperture and a cover pivoted to said housing formovement into and out of covering relation with said aperture, saidenclosure being formed with an opening for inserting a shoe to beheated, an infrared radiation-passing platform-like work support carriedby and beneath said cover for movement therewith from a position inwhich the support lies horizontally over the aperture to a position inwhich the support is raised clear of said aperture for providing accessto the interior of said enclosure, said support being arranged forreceiving, bottom down and between the support and the top of the cover,a shoe inserted through said opening, and a source of infrared radiationdisposed in said housing and arranged to radiate through said aperturetoward said support` 2. In apparatus of the class described, an er1-closure comprising a housing formed with an aperture and a hood pivotedto the housing for movement into and out of covering relation with saidaperture, said enclosure being formed with an opening for inserting ashoe to be heated, a heat-radiation-passing work support carried by saidhood for receiving bottom down a shoe in serted through said opening, aplurality of holders for radiant-heat lamps disposed in said housing andarranged to radiate heat toward said support, and vertically disposedbailie plates carried by said hood for intercepting visible radiationdirected toward said opening from said lamps, whereby, when said hood ismoved out of said covering relation, free access to said lamps is provided for cleaning and replacement.

3. In apparatus or the class described, an enclosure formed with anopening for inserting shoes and provided at its top with a hinged,upwardly tiltable hood, a horizontal open-meshgrid Work support carriedby said hood upon which support lasted shoes inserted through saidopening may be supported bottoms downward, a radiant-heat lamp disposedin said enclosure beneath said support for radiating heat therethrough,and baffle plates carried by said hood ben low said support forintercepting visible radiation emitted by said lamp toward said opening,said plates being disposed in spaced relation providing for radiationtherethrough from the lamp to the Support.

ERNEST HARRY SIMMS.

References Cited in the iile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,269,648 Ryan June 18, 1918 1,597,137 Garrnan Aug, 24, 19261,647,277 Davis iNov. 1, 192'? 1,754,518 Kinnie Apr. 15, 1930 2,184,858Goodman Dee. 26, 1938 2,249,760 Harrison et al July 22, 1941 2,325,050Goodwin et al July 27, 1943 2,325,086 Vore July 27, 1943 2,354,658Barber Aug. 1, 1944 2,373,922 Tetlow Apr. 17, 1945 2,442,407 Gibbons etal June 1, 1948 2,481,384 Blackwell Sept. 6, 1949 2,520,830 Borzner Aug.29, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 410,571 Great Britain May24, 1934 649,844 Germany Sept. 3, 1937

